Today was a day of incredible beauty, some complexity and Dave at his best.
The reason I wanted to show Dave the Von road will hopefully be pretty bloody obvious from the photos. I was here 10 years ago, almost to the day, on my first multi day adventure ride. I remember being struck by the immense beauty of this place and figured it was time to show Dave this place. The Von travels from the Mavora lakes, incredibly beautiful in their own right towards Mt Nicholas and Walter Peak homesteads through a wide alpine valley that can only be described as majestic. Not many travel it as it is a dead end road, ending in the shore of lake Wakatipu although farm workers and cyclists travel it. Of course we are resourceful little fellows and so were able to arrange a ferry crossing from Mt Nicholas to Queenstown. It was interesting riding on and off, hoping not to make tits of ourselves by ending up in the lake. And of course being watched by other tourists so one obviously couldn’t appear too hesitant as one eyes up a rocking gangplank with a right turn up a steep incline to the deck!
Thankfully we didn’t cock up and maintained modest coolness in front of the hoards. We stayed out in deck as we must stink something godawful.
Dave made me happy today. Those that know him superficially see him as a thoughtful and considerate, mild tempered man. He has layers though, and although I digress(it’s worth it) he was one of a trio of the first 3 paragliders in New Zealand, and I mean first flight. With no training he threw himself off the Remarkables access road, hoping he would float to the bottom. He did, although perhaps quicker than expected, as he would have been dragged down to watch by the weight of his canones.
I could write several posts about his multi textured past, but let’s get back to Queenstown.
Most kiwis are aware that Qtown is a shithole surrounded by paradise, come to think of it that could be a euphemism but this is a family channel.
So 30 seconds after getting off the ferry we are in gridlock. This is when it became fun. Dave cracked and roared off up the wrong side of the road, switched across to the gutter on the left and made his way through Qtown central in a matter of minutes almost running an annoying little man off a zebra crossing because he was walking too slowly (actually that was me come to think of it) and scooting across a final intersection to a chorus of hooting and shouting. I am not exaggerating. I was so proud. By the way, you may not understand but the rules are different for dirt bikes 😉.
So we have had some complications with Dave’s radiator having sprung a minor leak, possibly from a stone but who knows. The advice from our various learned friends is don’t panic, keep an eye on it, top up as needed and maybe add sealant. Usually this would be a none issue but we are back into remote country tomorrow and don’t want mechanical drama if possible.
So to make space for the sealant we need to remove some coolant and to do that we decided a syringe would be the easiest. Because I’m the doctor Dave sends me into the chemist on the basis that I know what a syringe looks like. Of course I haven’t shaved since I left home, I’m covered in dust and smell like I am sleeping under a bridge. Not surprisingly the pharmacist starts looking alarmed when I request a selection of syringes and especially when I ask if I can have needles (as we need the length to get down into the fluid in case your mind went the same way as the chemist). I settled her down but left without needles and note to self that I now look like a hardcore drug addict as well.
On the matter of drugs, I need a cup of tea before I go to bed.
The photos are Mavora Lakes, Von Road and Mt Nicholas with some afternoon mist drifting in(mist in the heat of summer, only in NZ!).
